by Kevin Dekker » Tue Dec 07, 2021 6:30 pm
I bought the Airfix 1:600 Victorious last Christmas, and while intending to build it as such, couldn't help but wonder if it could be converted to HMAS Melbourne. Made templates of the hull, calculated the dimensions needed for Melbourne, and then played around with the templates to see if it would be possible to reduce length and beam to suit, the idea being to maybe buy another kit after building Victorious and try the conversion on that.
I guess my main motivation was to save trying to shape the hurricane bow, and I also thought the stern cable deck and gallery could be re-used as was (it couldn't be in the end, as it's circular instead of squared off).
Long story short, Victorious never did get built. It morphed into Melbourne. The hull lines with two 20mm slugs removed and the mid section beam reduced by 10mm actually went back together okay-ish. Was certainly a struggle getting the port details, much as the opening post to this thread alludes to. Much studying grainy photographs. I did try submitting photographs of this build to the gallery but that was about 30 weeks ago and no sign so I presume they've sunk without trace.
Aircraft were scratch built and not too bad although quite time consuming so I only ended up building one passable Wessex, Tracker, and A4. Keep meaning to add a few more. One day!!! Not entirely satisfied with my Melbourne, some of the bay spacing is incorrect and you can tell if you care to count the number of life raft canisters I managed to cram in between them, but it was a compromise and an experiment so I may have another go entirely scratch built. Always seems to be that just as you compromise on a guess at some vague detail you then stumble across a photo that shows it how it was.
I bought the Airfix 1:600 Victorious last Christmas, and while intending to build it as such, couldn't help but wonder if it could be converted to HMAS Melbourne. Made templates of the hull, calculated the dimensions needed for Melbourne, and then played around with the templates to see if it would be possible to reduce length and beam to suit, the idea being to maybe buy another kit after building Victorious and try the conversion on that.
I guess my main motivation was to save trying to shape the hurricane bow, and I also thought the stern cable deck and gallery could be re-used as was (it couldn't be in the end, as it's circular instead of squared off).
Long story short, Victorious never did get built. It morphed into Melbourne. The hull lines with two 20mm slugs removed and the mid section beam reduced by 10mm actually went back together okay-ish. Was certainly a struggle getting the port details, much as the opening post to this thread alludes to. Much studying grainy photographs. I did try submitting photographs of this build to the gallery but that was about 30 weeks ago and no sign so I presume they've sunk without trace.
Aircraft were scratch built and not too bad although quite time consuming so I only ended up building one passable Wessex, Tracker, and A4. Keep meaning to add a few more. One day!!! Not entirely satisfied with my Melbourne, some of the bay spacing is incorrect and you can tell if you care to count the number of life raft canisters I managed to cram in between them, but it was a compromise and an experiment so I may have another go entirely scratch built. Always seems to be that just as you compromise on a guess at some vague detail you then stumble across a photo that shows it how it was.